Feckenham is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Redditch in Worcestershire, England. It lies some 4 miles (6 km) south-west of the town of Redditch and some 11 miles (18 km) east of the city of Worcester. It had a population of 670 in the 2001 census [1] and its immediate area is the location of notable royal manors that cover over 1,000 years of English history documented in many royal charters and Acts of Parliament. At its greatest, the historic Forest of Feckenham stretched to the River Avon in the south and to Worcester in the west. In 1389 Geoffrey Chaucer was as Clerk of Works and Keeper of the Lodge.

Enough bollocks let’s get down to business!

Our team pub crawl started at 3.45pm at the Barnt Green Inn, where 2 became 3 with the Skipper Habib and his general for the evening Gavalaaa were joined by Dangerous James Tasker. After a couple of Bad Apples and Peroni’s we moved onto the Forest in Feckenham. It was at the Forest where the tomfoolery began where Adrian was informed on the QT to go for the ducks with the black eyes as they were low numbers in the batting order or were they? After a swift one in the Forest we arrived at the home of our hosts the glorious Feckenham Cricket Club.

Skipper Habib wasted no time and had the Hook a Duck set up ready for the troops as they entered the changing room, the toss was won with tails never fails and the Fitmen were 1st into bat. However the batting order needed to be confirmed as the fate of the team was put in the hands of the dirty duck, this was followed by shoe bingo for the bowling order. Please see video footage on the Fitmen WhatsApp group. Highlights from Hook a Duck was Adrian going for the black eyed duck only to find he’d been fed some duff Intel and drew no11. Shariff was off to a flyer and pulled no1, with DDH in at 2 and sadly Chaz was not having much look again at Feckenham by drawing 10. Shoe bingo was delivered in the style of the great Rod Stewart which resulted in General Gavalaaa drawing no1, with Chaz again drawing no 10.

We got off to a slow but successful start with our Kid, DDH, Sam Moore and Tuckerrr who all retired not out at 25+, Adrian was tactically and emotionally switched from 11 to 6 which resulted in being stumped on just 9 runs and was very unhappy as he departed the field of play. Gavalaaa was last out and hit a 6 of his 1st ball to finish not out on 8 with a strike rate of 266.67 which left the oppo chasing 158.
General Gavalaaa opened the bowling in fine style with a wicket off the 1st ball caught by DDH, he finished on 2 for 15.

A very angry Sam Moore tried to take the head off his old school teacher with his 1st ball and got carted for 4. Good spells from DDH 0 for 6 and Shariff 0 for 8, which teed up nicely for a very tight finish. Chaz and Aid stepped up to bowl the last 4 overs with the oppo needing 10 an over, Aid was still charged up from his earlier disappointing batting performance and unleashed a match winning bowling display with 2 wickets in his 1st over and then a 3rd in his final over ending up on 3 for 6. Fitmen victory by 3 runs. Old Mo 158-3. Oppo 155-6.

Skipper comments:
A great team effort by all on and off the field, the Fitmen displayed a passion and togetherness that reminded me of the invincible team from 2015. Yes we had the usual Hissy fit from Adrian, Sharif had his own personal agenda and tried every trick in the book to put Adrian off his bowling which only spurred him on to secure the victory with a fine bowling performance. Tuckerrr calling his usual short runs in the final overs and Gavalaaa lording it around the pavilion with a fish bowl size glass of G&T! Hook a duck and shoe bingo went down well with some tomfoolery thrown in to add some spice to the outcome. MOM – All 11!